Grace and Treinen big finds for Nats bullpen, P-Nats break out with 11 runs

Left-hander Matt Grace has been a find for the Nationals this season. The UCLA product has been left in to face lefties and righties recently and has not allowed a run in three straight appearances. Grace is 2-0 with a 2.53 ERA.

In his last two outings, he battled and worked around walks to a dangerous hitter in the Yankees lineup, Mark Teixeira. Tuesday night it was four sliders that Teixeira didn't swing at. Wednesday, he got behind on three sinkers, 3-0. A fastball got it to 3-1, but then he lost him on another sinker. Bottom line is he didn't allow Teixeira any good looks at a ball he could drive. As a reliever, you have to pick your battles.

"A lot of veteran guys in the lineup," Grace said postgame Tuesday night. "A lot of guys that have been there for a while. But really, it boils down to if you make pitches, I think you can get anyone out. It doesn't really matter who is in the lineup. But yeah, you just have to bear down even more, just focus on location and just go after them."

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The recent stretch for the Nationals has been a franchise record. In 2012, the Nationals won 16 of 20 during a stretch in August. After Wednesday's win, the Nationals have now won 17 of their last 21 games, the best run since the franchise's inception in D.C. in 2005.

I asked reliever Blake Treinen, after starting 7-13, what has been a reason for the turnaround?

"We have tremendous belief in the fact that we are an elite club. We're going to go out there and play to our ability and let the game take care of itself. I think the fact that our guys have been there before. This team has had some downs and been really resilient coming back, playing really good baseball.

"They know you have to ride the storm, sometimes things aren't going to go your way. We can play with the best team any given day. I feel like we are just going out and doing our jobs the best we can. The results have spoken for themselves."

Treinen is 1-0 with a 2.93 ERA in his last 15 1/3 innings, a span of 10 games.

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High Single-A Potomac busted loose Thursday with an 11-1 crushing of Carolina. Isaac Ballou had three hits including a triple and three RBIs, and John Simms (1-4) notched his first win with 6 2/3 innings. He surrendered only one run on five hits. He also walked none and struck out two.

Drew Ward and John Wooten also contributed two RBIs apiece. The P-Nats pounded out 11 hits and left 12 men on base. It had to be pleasing for them to finally get going offensively after some tough stretches this season. The win sealed their first series sweep of the season.